Tip of the Week: 2 Free Browser Extensions to Help You Stay Focused

The Internet has become such a distracting place that it takes great discipline to stay on task and not get bogged down by its limitless supply videos, games, memes, and more. Thankfully, those needing help staying focused can find it in the form of free browser extensions.

There are two productivity-enhancing extensions that are specially designed for better managing your time online. For Chrome, there is WasteNoTime, and for Firefox there is LeechBlock.

WasteNoTime
WasteNoTime comes with several great time management tools, like Lockdown, which allows you to set a predetermined period of time for browsing the Internet before it limits your access (for your own good). Similarly, you can take advantage of the Block List feature which lets you block selected websites after you have spent a certain amount of time on them. This is a great way to keep your time on social media short and sweet. WasteNoTime also has a Time Range feature that lets you define what your work hours are so you can configure different settings for when you’re at work and when you’re at home.

LeechBlock
LeechBlock works much in the same way as WasteNoTime, allowing you to block certain websites outright or to limit the amount of time you spend on them. LeechBlock also has a password feature that you can use to set a password or random access code in order to access the options menus, just in case you have a moment of weakness and want to adjust the settings and bypass LeechBlock.

If you really want to ensure success in staying away from problematic websites, then you may want to go ahead and install both of these extensions on both of your web browsers. Otherwise, it might be too easy to open your second web browser that doesn’t have a distraction-blocking extension and sneak a peek at your favorite websites.

We should also note that these extensions only work so far as the web browser that they are installed on. To get this kind website-blocking productivity for all of the computers on your company’s network, you’re going to want to upgrade to a content-filtering solution that allows a network administrator to blacklist problem websites altogether. In fact, with SCW’s content filtering solution, you can even block certain websites from being accessed by certain employees, while allowing other employees to see the same sites who are either more responsible or need to in order to do their job.

To learn more about productivity-enhancing solutions that can benefit your business, call us today at (509) 534-1530.